Fifth City Commons

Fifth City Commons is a new-construction affordable housing development in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side with 43 apartments built to Passive House standards. Over four years in the making, it was part of the C40 Reinventing Competition for Cities that encouraged cities across the globe to offer vacant land for sustainable and net-zero development. The transit-oriented development sits at the gateway to a part of Garfield Park called Fifth City and was named after this geography through a community-driven process, and in honor of the community development organization active in the neighborhood starting in the 1960s whose message and legacy still resonates today.

The three-story building includes one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, two community rooms, a resident terrace and fitness room, three laundry rooms and on-site management offices. The housing serves families with incomes from 30% AMI (area median income) to 80% AMI.  The property has robust onsite storm water retention and mature landscaping, EV charging stations, extensive bike parking, and on-site composting. Over two-thirds of the building’s electric load will be offset by rooftop solar panels, and residents’ meters will be further offset by off-site community solar. A second phase is in planning and will include approximately 30 units for affordable shared ownership.

The building boasts features murals by local artists that are culturally identifiable and significant, and representative of the legacy of the East Garfield Park neighborhood and which serve as an object of inspiration and discussion for residents and visitors alike.